A Short Journey That Lasted Forever
by ShurtugalSkulblaka
Summary: Zoey's life was completely normal, boring in fact, until one day she was rescued by a mysterious man with an even more curious name: The Doctor. At first she is not sure of him, but after a few encounters with aliens and monsters she realizes she isn't alone. Crosses with some episodes, but is mostly my OC away from the series, before rose goes through 9, 10th, and 11th Doctors
1. Chapter 1: Odd Weather in Another Day

**Here's my attempt at a DW fanfic, just started it because, well, I love the show (thats an understatement) just couldn't resist. So here it is, not much action but every chapter can't be full of action as I've learned ;) anyway enjoy**

**Chapter One: Odd Weather In Another Day**

My life was boring in almost every sense of the word until one man changed it all. Most people would think of this intervention as a story of romance, but it was so much more than that. With him sometimes even the simplest things became far too complicated for me to understand. I came to love the life he gave me, became addicted to it in fact, and then it ended. I knew it would eventually have to, but I refused to accept that until it was already gone, until he was gone. I fell for him and then he was gone, leaving me with a void in my heart that could never be filled because there never was, or will be, a man like him, _never_.

It started as any other day would, the sky was gray, clouds were hanging low, I was wrapped in my long black coat walking the same streets of London I had known all my life. Nothing often changed for me so when it did I never took it for granted. My family, what remained of it anyway, was either living in America now or didn't want to speak to me. Right now I was just living with a few of my friends waiting to find my place in the world. I would consider myself lucky, I have good friends, some of my family's large fortune, and a job, which is more than most people have these days. But I had no clue my life was soon about to change completely, whether it was for the better I would be deciding for a while.

The rain had started to fall earlier than had been expected and soon everyone on the streets were opening up umbrellas or running for cover in the shops. Living in this city had taught me to always carry an umbrella no matter what the television said, so I was hardly effected by the change in weather. I continued to walk the short distance to my job at one of the more popular diners in the city. Being born into a rich family clearly had no effect on how my life would turn out, seeing as I served people for a living. That was it though, no one but my closest friends know how much money I have to my name, and even my friends hadn't known until after we were already close. I wasn't about to stand for friends only loyal to my money. The bell above the door rang when I opened it letting myself into the already-crowded diner and out of the rain. The slow drizzle had turned quickly into a downpour in the two minutes it took me to reach the diner. The regulars greeted me as I made my way from the door to behind the bar counter where I was grabbed on the shoulders by my friend Alana.

"What took you so long, Zoey? We've been dying without you!" she exclaimed melodramatically.

I laughed, sliding off my coat and hanging it on one of the hooks by all the others on the inside wall between the bar and kitchen.

"If the rain keeps up like this, the whole city'll be underwater!" I heard Alana say to one of the customers as she refilled their coffee.

"Unless Alana talks all the clouds away," I added, coming out of the hallway apron in hand.

"Oh, hush," Alana replied with a smile as I tied the apron around my waist

The morning shift passed without incident, as it normally did, only the rain was out of the ordinary. I thought back and realized this wasn't the first time we had experienced weather completely different from the season and what was on the news channels. Freak thunderstorms, hail, excessive rain, all had riddled the whole of Britain for a few months at least. Everyone said it's global warming, but I honestly don't believe in all of that rubbish. It was a few minutes after the massive lunch crowd started to flow in and out of the diner that things started to get rather unusual. I looked out the front windows to find that the pouring rain had turned to snow. High winds were blowing the small specks of white in every direction and against the windows that customers curiously looked out of, I don't think anyone knew what was going on.

"Alana!" I heard the manager call from the kitchen. "Can you go get a pack of ice from the icebox, please?"

"Sure!" Alana called back, juggling far too many plates on her arms.

I saw how busy she already was with her tables, while one of mine had just been vacated.

"Alana, hey, don't worry about the ice, I'll get it," I offered.

"Thanks, Zo, you're a live saver," she replied, hurrying off to another table.

I watched her dash off before turning to walk down the back hallway that started behind the bar and traversed the rear portion of the building. I soon found myself in the twisting hallway furthest from the kitchen and at the end of it, of course, was the walk-in icebox. I could barely hear the clamor of the restaurant behind me as I took a silver ring of keys from my apron pocket, opening the large door ahead of me. A wave of icy air escaped out of the open threshold, flooding the floor around my feet with its visible, white crests. Knowing I would be quick I left the door open, stepping into the small, frozen storage room, for that's what it basically was. I walked the ten or so feet to the back wall where the ice was stored and when I bent down to pick up the small, frosted bag I heard a loud, resonating bang behind me. I wheeled around sharply, seeing that the large door had shut behind me, but not worrying because I knew of the safety-measures that prevented it from locking someone inside. I still took no time in going back to the door to open it again just to clear the small sense of doubt in my mind. However, when I tried to pull down the handle on the door I found it wouldn't move, it was locked and I was stuck in the cold.

**Well, there you are :) hope you liked it, I know, not too much action but bare with me, next chapter will be action-packed don't know when I will finish because of all the homework I have...but it will happen :P**


	2. Chapter 2: The Storm

**Alright, so I am now out of school for summer and have been devoting more time to my fanfics already. After the horribly confusing season finale of season 7 my passion for this fanfic was renewed. And with the sad news of Matt Smith's impending departure I wished to write this fanfic to remind me of the "good ol' times" of Christopher, David, and Matt's first seasons. So, here you go people, I hope you enjoy you've waited long enough ;)**

**Chapter Two: The Storm**

I jiggled the handle many times, hoping it was just jammed, but to no avail. I only started to panic once I felt the cold seeping into me, making my body go numb, but I didn't bang on the door or cry out, it would have been pointless anyway, no one could hear me. Then the thought occurred to me, there were loads of people who knew I was back here, people who would come and get me because I had left the keys in the outside lock.

_How clever_, I thought to myself as I paced the inside of the room trying to stay warm. The thought was in half-hearted sarcasm at not believing I didn't think to bring someone with me, something that would have made more sense. Soon someone would come to get me out of here.

_Soon,_ I thought. _Soon..._

I woke suddenly after feeling a stabbing pain to me leg before noticing I had fallen asleep, sitting with my back against the door. I couldn't feel my feet or my hands and the thin layer of frost covering my hair told me I had been in here for a while, too long. Someone should have come by now, someone _had_ to have noticed! My thin, long-sleeved top and pants did little against the freezing air that engulfed me in its icy arms. I tried again to find a way to escape this frozen hell, but there wasn't a way, I was trapped with no one to rescue me. By now I was beyond panic, done with it, right now I was in full despair that I was going to freeze to death in here without anyone to notice.

_Please, someone, just help. _

The words rang through my mind, I was too weak to even whisper them aloud.

_Help me, please, it's too cold to live, I'm going to die._

I fell to my knees, far too weak now to stand and being unable to feel my legs. I was giving into my drowsiness, giving into the cold when I heard a high-pitched buzzing noise outside the door. Just before I fell into the cold darkness I saw the thick, metal door open.

My eyes slowly started to flicker open, the fuzzy image of the golden-tan roof that belonged to the diner coming into focus after a few seconds. I was confused on how I got in the middle of the diner, lying on my back, safe from the icebox I had almost died in. That was until I heard footsteps and that buzzing once more, sounds that threw me into even more confusion. The diner should have been crowded with a lot of people, but _all_ I heard were footsteps and the buzzing, a single set of footsteps. And why was I in the diner? If I had been found almost frozen to death, shouldn't I have been in a hospital? I sat up, looking around for an explanation to this madness, something or someone who could explain what had happened. I slowly rose to my feet, my head still spinning. I didn't know hoe one was supposed to feel after almost becoming a human popsicle, but it felt more like I had a really bad hangover. I had just finished running my hand through my long, brunette hair when I saw him for the first time. There was a man I had never seen before standing in the diner looking out of one of the windows curiously. He was wearing a black, leather coat that came slightly past his waist over a a black shirt and pants. It took him only a few seconds to notice that I had seen him.

"What do you think? Aliens, global warming, or just odd weather?" he asked without looking up at me until he was done speaking.

His accent was definitely northern, but there was something about him I just couldn't place.

"Uh...I'm sorry, who are you?" I asked completely off guard.

"What were you doing on the floor?" he countered, I knew he was just avoiding my question.

"I thought you put me there," I said curiously.

"Why would I do that?"

"Well, I don't know, I was trapped in the icebox and then I woke up here, I just assumed..."

"Aliens," he said, "it was definitely aliens. You weren't in the icebox, you were right there on the floor when I found you."

"No, but I was in the icebox," I argued pointlessly.

"You were hallucinating then, which is why I think it's aliens."

I didn't quite understand him, what he meant by "it's aliens." I watched him walk around the diner holding an object that resembled a medium-sized pen from the angle I was seeing it and was the source of the buzzing.

"Aliens? Like aliens from space, aliens?" I asked.

"Might be, I don't know for sure yet," he replied.

"You still haven't told me who you are," I said, hoping for an answer this time.

He finally looked at me, "Oh, well that's rude of me, I'm the Doctor."

The name meant nothing to me, though I still was watching him, but with eyes even more confused than before.

"Doctor...of what? Are you trying to sound mysterious or something?" I asked.

"No, why? Does it?"

"A little bit, yeah."

"Then, yes, I might be trying to sound mysterious, but that's what I'm called either way."

At this point I was wondering if he was intentionally trying to confuse me.

"Just 'the Doctor'?"

"Just the Doctor," he agreed with a smile as if it were a joke to him.

I watched him in bewilderment as he continued to move about the diner.

"What are you doing? What is that?" I asked pointing to the buzzing thing in his hand.

"I'm searching for any traces of alien energy and this..." he said holding up the gray, blue-tipped object, "is a sonic screwdriver."

"It doesn't look like a screwdriver," I said skeptically.

"It's sonic," he argued. "But what I can't figure out is there are only a few alien races that can control weather directly and if they were the cause I would already know, and if there was a race using a device to manipulate it, I would have found it already."

"Yeah? Then tell me this, what would they want with humans?" I asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, this diner, it was full before I started hallucinating or whatever, I mean I couldn't have been out that long, so where is everyone?"

He stopped what he was doing and looked around the diner, I could see his blue eyes darting around, like he was trying to calculate what could have happened.

"How full? How many people?" he asked after a few seconds.

"Fifty, maybe seventy at the most, it was around lunch, it's still Saturday, right?"

"Yes, it's still Saturday and it's about one in the afternoon."

I followed him as he walked to the other end of the diner, realizing it had only been an hour that I had thought I was dying inside that icebox, the icebox that the Doctor said didn't exist.

"There's something I'm missing, something that could link these events to one race, or an individual, but what?" he said

I could tell he was starting to get frustrated with what seemed like his dead end chase. Though I had no idea what it was he was looking for, seeing anyone started to get angry made me want to help them. I tried to think of anything that seemed like it would have been alien in origin, anything at all that might have seemed like it. I figured I probably wouldn't have noticed it the first time I saw it, and then I remembered the day a few days before the weather had gone crazy.

"There was a day, a couple months back, right before the weather started going mad that was noticeably odd, for me at least. A huge cloud covered the sun that day, everyone thought it was just a cloud, but I remember now; it was bigger than any cloud I'd ever seen, and it was black, as black as onyx which I've never seen in a cloud. Then it covered up the sun for at least forty-five minutes and it was gone. Not long afterwards the weather started to go berserk. Could it have been a spaceship or something?"

"Yes, it could have. It still doesn't explain the weather you're having."

"Atmospheric disturbance?" I suggested.

"I'm sorry?"

"Well, weather is caused by changes in the atmosphere, right? Shifts in pressure and changes in wind, all of that contributes to the weather, so, couldn't it just be a change in those conditions? A severe change of course," I said.

"How did you figure that?" he asked.

I gave an embarrassed smile, "Oh, when I was little I wanted to broadcast the weather on the news when I was older, but, dreams don't often work out the way you want."

"How did I not think of that before?"

"I guess I'm just brilliant," I said with a mock-egotistical smile.

"It sounds like I won't find them here," he said starting to walk toward the door.

"Wait! Where are you going?" I said starting after him.

"To solve your little problem," he replied still walking.

"But what about the others? Are they dead or...what?"

"If I can, I will find them and return them, what's your name?"

"My name is Zoey, Zoey Belle."

"You should forget this, Zoey, forget this day ever happened. Go home, have a good life..."

"But how? I mean, how could I just forget _you_?" I said with a short laugh.

"You have to find a way because knowing me is dangerous, I'm dangerous."

My amusement was no longer present as I realized how serious he was being.

"What...?" I sputtered.

"Zoey Belle, you brilliant girl, good-bye," he said pushing open the diner's front door and leaving.

I stood there in shock for a good minute confused, wondering exactly what had just happened. Then I felt a tug, an emotional pull, to run after him that I would never be able to explain, but would strive on for the rest of my life. I burst out of the glass doors into the alleyway looking down one side and seeing nothing but a dead end and a big, blue telephone box, one of those Police Boxes from the '50s; when I looked to the other side going toward the street I saw only the crowds of people. I started down toward the main sidewalk when I heard an odd, whirring noise and felt a burst of air blowing me from behind, sending the bottom of my coat out in front of me. Turning back to face the dead end of the alley I saw that the Police Box was gone, but my mind told me perhaps I had only imagined it was actually there.

The walk back to the flat I shared with my friends seemed to stretch on forever. My mind was tangled with thoughts of the mysterious Doctor, the man who made the least sense of anyone I'd ever known, and of the fates of everyone who was in that diner today. I fumbled with my keys and then the lock on the second story flat in the near-center of London. Pushing the black door inward I saw Isabella, my friend since grade school, dressed in a slimming silver cocktail dress and matching heels, the shaping the dress gave to her figure helped me figure out where she was going before she even told me.

"I'm going to meet Jimmy," she said.

Jimmy, her boyfriend and another resident of our flat, worked late so she seldom found a chance to go out with him, but tonight would be the only night I would question it.

"Did you hear anything about the diner?" I asked.

"Yeah, I saw that on the telly not too long ago, but you were walking up from the street by then so I wasn't worried. Do you know anything?" she asked putting in diamond-studded earrings by the mirror.

I thought of the Doctor's words, knowing it was probably best I didn't say anything no matter how mad he seemed.

"No," I lied. "I got knocked unconscious and when I woke up everyone was gone."

"Are you alright, though?" Isabella asked in concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Hey, I really don't think you should go out tonight, and I know what I'm saying and I understand what nights like this mean to you, but maybe you should spend it here," I finally said.

I sat down on the black sofa in the room, looking back at Isabella, who was giving me a questioning look.

"Zoey, are you sure you're feeling well? Of course I'm going out tonight! Jimmy only gets the night off once every month, I'd like to spend it with him."

"But it's not safe! They took all of those people from the diner, what if they come back-" I said before I realized what came out of my mouth.

"'They'?"

"Oh, never mind, get on your way then," I said waving my hand dismissively.

"I'll be fine, Zo, don't worry about me, okay?" she said walking out the door.

I laid across the sofa, letting my mind catch up with all that had happened. Why had I subconsciously believed the Doctor about aliens? What was that one thing about him I just couldn't place? He was so mysterious to me, a puzzle, yet, not in a bad way. He was mysterious in the way that made me want to know more about him, something about him, though, something that radiated silently off of him, convinced my mind that trying to learn more about him was dangerous and not a good thing to do. Here I was perplexed by a man that I would probably never meet again, me, a woman who had never seriously loved a man other than her own father, stopped cold by that very thing. Now I wished I had followed him right away, wished I had never let him out of my sight. What if he had gone after those aliens he thought were behind everything? What if something happened to him, what if he was dead? Somehow the ominous notion I had concluded with didn't quite fir right with my thoughts of him. He was completely erratic, but he was clever nonetheless, I doubted anything horrible had happened to him. I snapped out of my trance of questions when I heard rustling in the back of the flat, a noise that made me jump off the sofa. Knowing I had dozed off for a little it occurred to me that Isabella may have come back for something she'd forgotten.

"Back so soon? Thought it was the highlight of your month, this night? Bella?" I called into the back.

When there was no answer I got up and started to walk to the back rooms.

"Bella, answer me, is it you? Come on, this isn't funny! I'm sorry I suggested you shouldn't go tonight!"

I heard a noise behind me, turning on my heel in fright to yell at her for scaring me, I found no one. All of a sudden there was a sharp, exploding pain to the back of my head and I fell into darkness.

The next thing I was aware of was the dull throbbing in my head as I opened my eyes which had been shut for some time now. When I tried to recall what happened all I found was blank space. I looked around, trying to discern where I was, but only saw the darkness of a dank, black hallway dripping with water. The design of the hallway, for that is what it appeared to be, and the material it was made out of were like nothing I had ever seen. I could feel the wall behind me, to the eye it looked like a rock-like material, but when I laid my palm against it the material felt like liquid. Regaining some of my sense, which had clearly been impeded by the blow to the head I had received, I tried to move only to find my arms restrained against the wall behind me and I felt a pang of panic rise inside me. My fears escalated when I heard noises deep in the depths of where ever I was, somewhere far beyond the hallway. There was a dull, metallic clinking and muddled voices that were getting closer to where I stood by the seconds that ticked by.

_Right,_ I thought. _I am not going to just stand here_ _and take death or torture or what ever they might have planned for me. If I am stuck here, I'm going to be stuck here fighting._

At first I looked around for anything that could be used to break the metal wrapped in coils up my arms, anything with a sharp edge. I hardly thought about how I would get anything of use I might find into my hand, but that wasn't troubling me right now. Not that the problem of moving would have arose anyway, for I couldn't find anything to break the metal with. Though dark, damp, and slimy the hallway I was being kept in was uniform, immaculate even, and not a thing seemed to be out of place, not even a minuscule rock fragment. Giving up still wasn't an option to me, I had already given into death -even if it was a trick of the mind my thoughts and feelings were still real- I wasn't about to do it again. As the voices and noises got ever nearer I started to become more and more frantic. I pulled against the restraints in a feeble attempt to get them to budge, but to no avail, the metal remained steadfast. I could hear the voices more clearly now and they didn't strike the slightest resemblance to any language on Earth I had heard before. The Doctor had been right, and so had I, it was aliens and that cloud I had seen _was_ a spaceship, I knew because I was on it.

**The next update may take some time because I am still writing chapt 3 and dont know quite where I'm going to end it. I didn't want to take forever to introduce the wonderful Doctor (it is 9th Doctor in case a. I haven't already told you or b. you couldn't figure it out) so I decided on sooner rather than later. Hope you enjoyed :)**


	3. Chapter 3: Impossible Things

**A/N: Alright, so here it is, since summer started I have been unable to ignore this fanfiction XD it's taking up most of my time so it will probably be the most updated out of all of mine. Sorry in advance for the length of this chapter, I had no clue where else to cut it so it ended up being pretty long, next one will probably be shorter...**

**Chapter 3: Impossible Things**

The harshness of the voices matched the faces they came with, I soon found out and was unable to deny it even in the slightest: aliens did exist. Less than a minute after I had discovered my location,the voices had merged with figures that approached from the far end of the hallway. The alien figures that had taken me, which I could now clearly see, had long, slender bodies standing upright on two legs with jackal-like faces that resembled the ones I'd once seen on a statue in an Egyptian museum. The wide, green eyes of the six-foot figures, for now there were three of them standing in front of me, emanated a overwhelming sense of guile. All six eyes were looking at me as I stood, restrained and helpless, against the wall with no way out and no hope of finding a way out with them now guarding me. My body squirmed under their intimidating glances, making me wish I was anywhere but here. The black cloaks that were taut against their bodies only made them that much more menacing because the material was far too black, so black it didn't even look real. They spoke, their dark pink tongues sliding against the top of their mouths with each rasping, seething word. None of the foreign words made any sense to me whatsoever, I stood there, fixed in place with nothing to rely on but these creatures' mercy. I was beyond scared, completely and thoroughly frightened out of my wits as the emerald eyes of the tallest of the three creatures bored into me. It looked as if it knew I didn't understand their language and I remained optimistic that this could be a good sign.  
"Did you kill them?" I asked. "All those people you abducted from the diner, all of those humans, did you kill them?"  
I didn't entirely expect an answer from them, so I was utterly lost of thought and words when the tallest one made a growling noise that closely resembled a "no". For a second I was not as fearful of them until I realized that what may have sounded like "no" to me but in their language it could have meant something entirely different. My fear was amplified a hundred-fold when the alien to the left of the one that spoke to me pulled out a thin, metallic object that was sharpened to a point. I closed my eyes, knowing no matter what I set my mind to there was _no way_ I was getting out of this, short of a miracle I knew that death awaited me.

Seconds after closing my eyes the same buzzing noise I had heard multiple times in the diner penetrated the darkness.  
"Impossible," I breathed, opening my eyes in disbelief.  
Just as I opened them the metal restraints around my arms recoiled back into the wall behind me. I fell forward a few inches and found the three alien figures had retreated a few steps likely in shock that, somehow, I was escaping. Their expressions soon changed those resembling fury and outrage, their green eyes narrowing as the advanced on me. They had only taken one step toward me when I felt a hand clasp around my wrist, undeniably a human hand. I threw my eyes to the side to the hand's owner, seeing that unmistakable face that was now my only comfort.  
"Well, come on! Run!" the Doctor told me.  
My body quickly obeyed his words without my mind's consent, before I could fully understand what was happening, or even how any of this was remotely possible, I was dashing down the long corridor with the Doctor leading me.  
"But-how!" I yelled up at him.  
"There'll be time for that later, but not now," he said. "This way."  
He turned right, leading us down another corridor and I followed picking up speed to stay with him.  
"Where are we going!" I called.  
"No idea," he replied taking out the sonic-screwdriver-thing, the tip lighting up and then blinking its blue color.  
"Fantastic!" he jeered in a sarcastic tone. "Wrong way, come on!"  
He turned back on himself heading toward me where I had stopped in my tracks seconds earlier. As he came near me he grabbed my hand and I his, pulling me along beside him continuing to run back down the corridor which led us back into the first corridor we had come down. I held on tightly to his hand, aware that my fear had been suppressed considerably the second I saw him and that the mysterious man who I barely knew was the source of the feeling of protection I now possessed. It was safe to say I had never trusted someone so much, so quickly before; all the stronger was the fact that I didn't even know _why_ I was so trusting of him. A few meters later the narrow corridor opened into a large, circular room that was lit with an invisible source of dim, green light the same color as the alien's eyes. I looked up and saw in the path of the direction we were running a blue Police Public Call Box.

It soon occurred to me it was the same Police Box I had seen for a second in the alleyway, the doubt that what I had seen then was real cleared away when I saw it again. The Doctor released my hand, running quickly ahead to the Police Box. When I reached the foot of the blue box the Doctor had unlocked it and pushed the door open.  
"What's the plan here because I don't see how a wooden box is going to protect us from the-" I was cut off when he pulled me inside, the door closed back on its own behind me.  
I turned around fully expecting to see the Doctor right beside me in the small space inside the box, but what I actually saw took my breath away. Inside that small, seemingly normal, Police Box I found myself standing in an enormous room that was larger than the main room of my flat.  
"Oh, my God," I breathed awestruck and confused as I looked around, my eyes wider than ever before.  
The inside room consisted of three different shaped platforms only an inch or so higher than one another; the outermost and largest was circular-shaped floor that outlined the second largest, hexagonally-shaped platform more toward the center of the room. The hexagon platform had a grate metal floor through which could be seen more space underneath. The smallest of the platforms, at the center of the hexagon platform, was also circular-shaped and held an even more confusing structure at the very center of the entire room. There were six bars extending from under the grates in the very center that held the main body of the center-most structure at least two feet from the top of the grates. The bars then extended over the edges and across the top of the main body of the center-most structure,which was circular in shape, sectioning off the body into six pieces and coming together in a circle at the top of the slightly-sloped-upward body. At the center of the main body was a stout, but wide, cylindrical piece of metal that was only a few inches thick and rose up from the main body. The cylindrical piece supported to disks that sat atop it, the bottom disk larger than the top, giving it a stacked look. Through the center of the disks, and what I could assume the entire center structure, ran a cylindrical, transparent tube filled with a greenish-blue light that also emanated from the main, circular body of the structure. The transparent tube shot up about five or six feet from the disks into the center of another structure that hung low, upside-down from the ceiling. The center-most structure is where I saw the Doctor standing, watching me as I observed all of it.

Taking my focus off of the structure at the center, I cast my eyes around the rest of the space. In the walls, which were sectioned into panels, were lines of hexagonal impressions that curved with the panels up to the ceiling. However, the most interesting objects I saw in the entire room were the six giant, golden column-like structures that supported the ceiling and curved walls above. I looked at one of them and at first it reminded me of a tree coming out of the floor, the base -like a trunk- was thick but separated a foot off the floor into two, curved-outward, branch-like structures that melded together again at the top. They stopped resembling trees when I saw the same material, a stone-looking material, coming out of the wall, making the tree-looking structure look more like an archway bridging from the wall, over the outermost circular platform and ending at the hexagonal platform at the "trunk." Then I saw that the archway had another arch-looking structure on top of it, also the same material that made it one giant structure all together, and that archway was sectioned off into three parts. These were all, relatively narrow so there were gaps between the connecting pieces of material and all six of them had this particular form. Looking toward the ceiling I saw wires hanging down in loose loops all coming out of the upside-down center structure of the ceiling. As a whole it was a lot to take in, but by focusing on the detail of all of the separate objects in the room I was able to retain some of the shock I was feeling. The most striking feature of the whole thing was the dull-gold light that seemed to come out of every corner of the room, like it illuminated itself.

"This...oh, my God...it's...bigger than out there, it's bigger on the inside," I said, still pretty much robbed of words.  
"Yes, it is," the Doctor said still standing by the center structure.  
"But... that's impossible, it's physically impossible," I said softly, still awestruck.  
"Obviously it's not or you would be here looking at it like this," the Doctor countered.  
"Is it alien?" I asked, but already knowing the answer.  
"Yes, it is."  
"Is it theirs?" I asked motioning to outside where the aliens that captured me would surely be.  
"Not in a trillion years, not in all of eternity, would they ever develop technology like this, nor would I ever, also not in eternity, give her up," the Doctor said placing his hand on the circular part of the center structure.  
"So, it's yours?" I asked, following in lesser amount of confusion than before.  
"Yes, it's is."  
"Then that means...you're an alien?" I asked, trying not to offend him.  
"I am," he said simply, without emotion. "Does that scare you?"  
"No, not really," I replied in complete honesty. "Because the only reason it would scare me is if you were going to kill me, and clearly you're not."  
"No, I'm not going to be killing anything if I can help it."  
"Okay, so...what is this thing?" I asked.  
"It's the TARDIS, spelled T-A-R-D-I-S, it's short for Time and Relative Dimension in Space," the Doctor said.  
"So, it's a time machine?"  
"Usually people assume space ship, but time machine is far closer to it, yes. It's very complicated though, and you humans are so small-minded, it would be nearly impossible for you to understand."  
"Just earlier you called me brilliant because I pointed out something you didn't notice, now your insulting my intelligence?"  
"It's not just you, it's the entire human race, and the lot of you just can't help it."  
I tried to ignore the insults I was receiving from him and instead changed the subject to something that really was troubling me.  
"What about the aliens? Won't they find a away in?" I asked.  
"Nothing has come through those doors that I didn't want,or let, in here. Force fields. I'd like to see them try, besides we aren't staying here long. You did get the time part right, but at the moment it doesn't apply, you forgot another major part of the TARDIS's name," the Doctor said pridefully.  
"Yeah? And what's that?" I asked curiously, smiling, waiting for him to amaze me once more.  
"_Space_," the Doctor said throwing down a lever I just now saw on the center structure.  
As soon as he pulled the lever down the whole room started to shake and a quite beautiful noise, the same one I had heard in the alleyway, echoed loudly through the room.

The whole place jerked suddenly, making me stumble and I would have fallen had the Doctor not grabbed my arm to steady me.  
"What was that?" I asked in shock, but couldn't help laughing at the situation I was in.  
"It happens more often than you'd think," the Doctor said pulling me back to my feet.  
Seconds after it had jerked, the TARDIS stopped shaking and making the noise. After it stopped moving, without a word, the Doctor ran out of the door.  
"Wait a second! Won't they still be out there!?" I called after him as the door swung shut once more.  
I noticed the doors looked exactly how one would expect it to look judging by the outside, they were the same size and shape, even the words "Police Public Call Box" were reflected backwards through the top of the door. I followed the Doctor out of the door, scared that the aliens would be waiting for us.  
"Doctor! What about the aliens? Won't they be-"  
Once again my words were stopped by the impossible image my eyes were taking in.  
"It's always the most populated places, they always have to make it so complicated," the Doctor said, walking about the side of the street.  
I stood outside the Police Box, my mouth agape just as it had been when I'd first entered the TARDIS. I looked around in confusion, surely I was seeing things because what I _was_ seeing didn't make sense in the slightest.  
"Impossible, again, we were just in the- but we're in the middle of London!" I exclaimed, turning around to see the lights and bustle of the city at night not two blocks away.  
"Humans, you really don't grasp much, do you?" the Doctor said.  
I looked back at the impossible Police Box, "It can't have flown," I started.  
"Good," the Doctor replied, crossing his arms and just standing there, not moving around anymore.  
"The corridors were too small for the...TARDIS," I continued, trying out the sounding of the name, "to have moved through them if it flew. Even then, we were still in space."  
"Better," the Doctor said. "You are smarter than most of them, you know."  
"Wow, was that actually a _compliment_?" I asked in sarcastic astonishment.  
"Don't get used to them," the Doctor said, but I could hear the slight teasing in his voice.  
"So, what does it do, then?"  
"That, I'm sure of, you wouldn't understand," the Doctor said looking out over the Thames.  
"So, you compliment me then insult me then compliment me again and now your insulting me again, make up your mind."  
"It disappears in one place then rematerializes in another," the Doctor said, his back to me.  
"Like a teleportation device?"  
"Sort of. Now enough about the TARDIS, I need to find the machine the Baetas are using, it's not just the weather they are controlling with it either, it's the whole atmosphere. Every blundering human on planet Earth is in danger if I don't find the problem and destroy it, typical, too weak to save yourselves, too completely stupid."  
I rolled my eyes, refusing to take his human stereotyping any longer.  
"Since the fear of being called stupid was just shot down for every human being on Earth," I mumbled. "Like the Greek alphabet Beta?"  
"No, Baeta with an 'a' in-between the 'b' and 'e' in the Beta your thinking of, but the two are completely different. Baetas are the aliens that are trying to kill all of you humans by controlling your atmosphere," the Doctor said.  
I took a second to catch my mind up to speed with his words, but once I did a grim notion passed my mind.  
"If they can control the atmosphere...can they manipulate the gases in it?" I said.  
"They can draw all the oxygen out of it," the Doctor said at the same time.  
"Oh, my God," I said in shock. "We can't just let this happen, what can we do?"  
The Doctor turned to face me, his brow wrinkled in confusion, his expression taking me by surprise.  
"'We'?" he asked.  
"Well, yeah, you saved my life, I thought the least I could do was help you. Besides, you think I don't notice, but I do, whenever you think I'm not looking you look lonely. I don't like it when people are lonely, especially good people, and I can see you are a good person even if you do like insulting the entire human race," I said.  
I saw that his eyes never moved off of me, he never looked away as I said this, which told me I was right, he was lonely. I had no idea the horrible reasons for this would far surpass any I could ever think of.  
"You can come along, but know it's going to be dangerous and I'm not going to be responsible for anything that might happen to you, all right?" the Doctor said.  
"Fine by me," I said. "Where is it then, this machine?"  
The Doctor held up the sonic screwdriver, the blue tip lighting up in the darkness and the buzzing noise going in and out. The buzzing was of no significance to me, but apparently the Doctor knew something I didn't because he started off down the all but abandoned street we were on.

I followed him down the streets a few blocks from the city's highly-populated center. It wasn't like me to just jump head-first into danger, something about the Doctor and all his mystery changed me. I tried to reason with myself, what did I think I was doing here? How could I possibly help someone who clearly knew much more than I did about, basically, everything? What made him so lonely, had he lost someone or was he just tired of being on his own? I knew next to nothing about him, except that he wasn't from this world and he had a Police Box that was bigger on the inside and could travel through space and time, apparently. I could hardly believe any of this was real, or true for that matter, though somehow I _knew_ he was telling the truth and all of this was most definitely real. I didn't recognize the street we were on, it was dark and bordered wide-open space on the right side, the Doctor's sonic screwdriver was the main source of light as we walked, even that was feeble. As we walked further down it I noticed it was leading us closer to the city with each step, the Doctor didn't say anything, he just held the sonic screwdriver in front of him and led the way. I thought maybe I had upset him somehow when I had stated he looked lonely mostly because I had learned people don't like to be told what they don't want you to know. He acted like a person who thought they carried the weight of the world on their shoulders, and not in a pompous way, a way that made them want to protect everything within their reach. There was something darker to him that wasn't apparent, but was hidden and only escaped in short bursts of anger. All of these things I noticed as we walked just made me that much more interested in him. What did it matter, really, soon I would be back to my normal life with just a faint memory of what was transpiring right now, just a small memory of the most mysterious man I would ever meet.

We rounded a corner and found ourselves standing at the end of a busy street in the heart of London. I knew this area well, so did about a million tourists, we were about a block from the London Eye. The area in which we stood couldn't have been but three or four blocks from my flat, only then did the thought also occur to me that Bella might be looking for me by now, if she was even home yet.  
"Let me guess," I said breaking the silence that had surrounded us. "There's an alien machine in the London Eye?"  
"Nope, the signal's coming from further away, about two blocks that way," the Doctor said pointing to the street on our left.  
No sooner did the words leave his mouth when the sky lit up in blue energy that shot from the roof of a tall building two blocks down the street. I looked at the Doctor, watching a smile cross his face before he grabbed my hand once more.  
"C'mon!" he yelled pulling me with him as we ran toward the building.  
Until this day I had never liked running so much in my life, I didn't know how, but the Doctor was having a major influence on me, first with my reaction to danger now with running. The curious thing was, I liked how I was being influenced it was better for me in my own eyes and I wondered how if the changes would stay after the Doctor and I parted ways. We dashed down the streets, weaving in between the crowds of people on the roads, which was thinned out by the age of the night. None of the people walking the streets seemed to have noticed the energy that came from the building. I was about to ask the Doctor why they seemed like they hadn't seen it when we reached the foot of the building, he moved the sonic screwdriver in front of the door, making it buzz in an odd pitch and seconds later I heard a hearty click of a lock. Cautiously, the Doctor pulled the door to the building open, holding it as I passed through as well. I entered looking around for any signs of people that might identify us as intruders and cause unwanted commotion, but saw none.  
"Blimey, it's a bit dark in here," I said.  
"I can fix that, hold on," the Doctor said holding the sonic screwdriver up in the air and making it buzz again, this time with a different pitch.  
The lights switched on, lighting up the room enough for us to find our way around.  
"Look for the stairs, we need to get on the roof," he told me. "And fast."  
"Great, working under pressure," I said quietly as I walked around the corner of the room, looking for stairs.  
It didn't take me long to see the door with bold, white letters spelling "STAIRS" across it.  
"Doctor!" I called back. "Over here!"  
I heard his hurried footsteps across the wood flooring before I saw him running to me. He pushed the door open with me following suit and started up the staircase behind the door. By the time we reached the top of the third story staircase I was feeling the adrenaline that had been keeping me going starting to lose its effect. The Doctor unlocked the door leading to the roof, continuing out onto the flat surface and again I followed.

There was nothing special about this building, in fact, it was identical to the one next to it. The only difference between the two was a dark, cylindrical object in the center of the roof we were on. The Doctor ran right up to it, kneeling down level to its two foot height and looking it over on all sides. Once I got closer to the object I could see the odd, swirling lines crossing over its otherwise smooth surface, I had seen that design before.  
"Doctor, that's it, that's the machine, I saw those same lines on the wall of the Baetas' spaceship."  
"Yes, I know," he replied, not taking his eyes off the object.  
Now that we had finally stopped running I tried to catch my breath, but found it increasingly harder, when it should have been just the opposite.  
"Doctor..."  
"Hold on, I've almost got it," he said putting the tip of the sonic screwdriver against a groove in the object.  
"Is it just me, or is it getting harder to breathe?" I said, ignoring his demand for me to wait.  
"Hol-wait, what?" he asked turning around slightly to face me.  
It now felt as if I had run miles on end and someone was holding a cloth over my nose and mouth.  
"I can't...I can't breathe, Doctor, what's happening!?" I said between gasps of breath.  
I saw his eyes widen and he once again held the sonic screwdriver into the air, this time it made an extremely-high-pitched noise that actually hurt my ears. The air just above our heads was now glowing with the same blue energy we had seen shoot up from the roof earlier.  
"It's a force field!" the Doctor yelled in frustration, looking over the edge of the roof where the blue light extended.  
I sat on the roof with my back against a metal box that covered some important structure, my legs were too weak to support me now, I was hardly able to breathe; my only hope was that the Doctor had a plan. I saw him go back to the machine, moving the sonic screwdriver over it frantically.  
"Oh, of course, it's deadlock sealed," he said, but did not not slow his movements. "But, I found a weak spot, just a minute longer, Zoey, hold on."  
"I...can't...Doctor..." I said through heaves of my diaphragm, not even breaths anymore.  
Unable to breathe any longer my vision started to blur, my head became foggy and spun out of control, and I passed out on the roof of the building.

**A/N: Hope you enjoyed, the TARDIS was extremely hard to explain/describe from the POV of someone who has never seen it before when I myself am so fond of it, and I still don't think I got it all described as I wanted it to be, but know that I did my best XD I looked at countless pictures of the TARDIS and saw some new things I didn't even know were in the console room. I really did just want to stick with my OC saying "it's bigger on the inside" no matter how overused and normal that line is, it is wonderful and pretty much sums up the TARDIS.  
****(also, if there are any slips in character and the 9th doctor starts sounding like 10, mea culpa, I really do know 10th's personality waaaaay better, even if 9 was my first doctor)**


	4. Chapter 4: Running Away

**Sorry about the cliffhanger! In light of the release of the new Doctor tomorrow (I still don't know whether to be nervous or excited, or both) I finally finished this chapter, which I realized could only have one ending, I give you...**

**Chapter 4: Running Away**

I woke gasping and coughing back into consciousness not long after I had passed out. The first sight I laid my eyes on was the Doctor standing at my feet, his hand extended toward me.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"Yeah, fine, thanks," I replied weakly, taking his hand and allowing him to pull me to my feet.

I saw the alien machine hadn't been moved or destroyed, it just sat there, but it clearly wasn't a threat anymore. My head felt like it was about to burst it was throbbing so hard and I still felt weak physically and mentally as I walked around the roof.

"What was that?" I asked, my voice still soft and weak.

"That was a test run," the Doctor said scanning the machine with the sonic screwdriver again.

"So, we were right, they can drain the oxygen from the atmosphere, they can kill everyone on this planet," I said fearfully.

"Yes, they can, it will take longer to effect the whole planet, but it's still possible."

"How can we stop them?" I asked. "Can't you use that sonic screwdriver...thing...to destroy that machine."

"This isn't the only machine, this was just a test, the full-scale machine is on their ship, if we can get to the transmitter location on this ship then we can stop them."

"You mean we have to go back up into that spaceship? Are you serious?" I asked.

"Of course I'm being serious! And you don't have to come," the Doctor said.

"Not a chance, I'm not missing this, they tried to kill me_ twice_, I want to help in what ever way I can."

I followed the Doctor back down the stairs and out of the building to the street. It was there I saw a handful of people who were also gasping and coughing, just getting up of the street, like I had, clearly the force field had reached further than I had thought. The Doctor and I walked back to the TARDIS with less haste than before but still hurriedly, time was of the essence since we didn't know when the aliens might strike. Even knowing what to expect didn't take the shock away when I entered the TARDIS once more. This time I stood beside the Doctor at the console, which is what I took the main center structure to be. I watched in amazement as he turned dials, flipped switches, and pulled down levers, making the TARDIS shudder and make the noise, which I now found oddly calming. I didn't, by any means, want to go back up into that horrible spaceship, but if it meant the fate of the human race I could spare my peace-of-mind for a while.

"Okay, so what aren't you telling me because those aliens, why would they just fly over to Earth to destroy life here? There's got to be a reason, right, a plan?" I asked the Doctor as the TARDIS shook about.

"That's very good, to point that out, but I don't know why, not yet. I will, though, you just wait," the Doctor said pulling to the side another lever on the console.

The TARDIS jerked again and a few seconds later stopped moving once more. I started to prepare myself mentally for what might come even though I knew nothing could possibly prepare me for what we were about to do. Again, something I couldn't being to explain told me to trust the Doctor, he seemed to know what he was doing, yet, he also didn't.

"Are you sure you want to come, because, you could stay in here and be -almost- perfectly safe," the Doctor said turning to face me.

"And leave you alone? No, I'm coming, thanks for the concern though," I said giving him my most confident grin, though my confidence was wavering inside.

"Alright, then, on we go," the Doctor said starting to walk to the doors.

I sighed, still unsure if what I was doing was the right thing, I knew it was the right thing, but I was unsure to whether we would be able to stop what was already in motion. My mind buzzing with these thoughts, I made the walk down the red-tiled ramp to the Police Box doors where the Doctor stood waiting for me. I nodded, giving him one last signal that I wasn't about to change my mind and together we pushed the doors open, uncertain of what might await us beyond their protection.

We stood outside the TARDIS doors my hand lacing nervously into the Doctor's, who seemed much calmer than I did. At any second I expected those horrible aliens to jump out of the darkness at us , taking us prisoner or worse, killing us, but a minute passed by without either incident.

"Fantastic, they must've not heard us, come on," the Doctor said starting to walk toward a looming archway at the other end of the room.

"Do you at least know where you're going this time?" I asked jokingly, trying to take my anxiety down some.

"I always know where I'm going," the Doctor replied as if I had offended him.

A gave a small, amused chuckled, following him down the hallway leading out of the archway. Walking kept me silent at first, walking and the fear of being discovered by the Baetas. However, I was built on curiosity, my whole life I had been asking why or how something was done always wanting to hear a proper answer from the unfortunate souls who had incurred my interrogations. Now that I only had questions for the Doctor, my nature was being upset because he clearly liked to avoid proper answers. When the end of one corridor just led to the beginning of another I started to take awareness to the sheer size of the ship, it was massive. Normally I would have felt guilty about the constant inquiry I had already started and was about to continue, but now I didn't feel guilty because it was pretty clear, by the way he answered my questions, the Doctor was used to this.

"What happened to the people at the diner?" I asked.

"Oh, didn't you wonder why I was on the spaceship the first time anyways? They're all safe and sound, right back where they came from, they won't remember a thing of it," the Doctor said.

"Then what do they want, the...Baetas?" I said, still weary of the ridiculous words coming our of my mouth. "Why attack Earth?"

"I'm still working on that, could be a number of reasons; war, famine, their planet could be dying or becoming inhabitable for the species, _or_ they could just hate green and blue planets," the Doctor said.

I smiled at his joke, afraid to bring the decibel level up any higher than the hushed voices between us.

"Don't laugh, I've had that happen before!" the Doctor said in a joking tone, making me smile even more.

"I have!" the Doctor argued.

"Trust me, I believe you, I guess I just don't understand aliens," I said. "Hold on. Does the air seem a bit thinner in here or is it just me?"

"Does it?"

"Yes, can't you tell?"

The Doctor didn't answer me and instead looked around the corridor we were walking through. All of a sudden his expression changed as if he'd been hit in the face with an idea.

"Fantastic!" the Doctor exclaimed excitedly. "You don't even realize how brilliant you are!"

I stood looking at him with the same confused expression I had gotten far too familiar with.

"...Thanks, but what exactly did I do this time that was brilliant?"

"Terraforming! They're terraforming," the Doctor said in an excited outburst.

Once again I was lost and a bit confused on how I kept coming up with these "brilliant" notions if I didn't even know what they meant. My confusion must have been apparent because the Doctor looked at me as if he was shocked I didn't know what it was.

"You humans must know what terraforming is... no? And just when I thought I might be able to save you-"

"Hey!" I exclaimed in offense.

"Terraforming is a very serious thing, Zoey, it means they are trying to change the biological factors of your planet to fit one that will suit their own. If that means less oxygen in the air..."

"That means every human dies," I ominously finished his thought.

We walked again in tension-filled silence, the corridor stretching further and further with each minute that passed.

"Well, we must be getting closer to the center of the ship, then," I said, trying to change the subject. "Because of the air."

"That's very good of you to notice that," the Doctor said.

"Another compliment? You haven't insulted the human race for...over two minutes, that's good of _you_, Doctor," I teased.

"I'm not trying to insult humans, I'm just surprised you don't know these things, they're very important."

"Fine, whatever you want to call it-" I started.

Suddenly, the faint source of light in the corridor shut off, throwing the two of us into pitch-black darkness. I turned around, not even realizing the length I had strayed in front of the Doctor, now I didn't know where he was. I moved to the right, trying to find the curved wall of the corridor, something to help gage how far I moved back down the corridor.

"Doctor!?" I called out in a low voice.

"Zoey, don't move, stay right where you are," I heard his voice close to me in the darkness.

"Did you do that?" I asked, standing still.

"Of course I didn't! Did you touch something?"

"I surely didn't do it-Oh my God, if you didn't do it, and I didn't do it...we're in trouble."

The darkness was far from silent, for now I could hear a growl coming from far off and the clanking of metal like I had heard before.

"Doctor..." I whispered. "Where are you?"

"Don't panic, just stay there, I'm right behind you," he said, his voice right behind me making me jump.

"Can you use the sonic screwdriver to turn the lights back on?" I asked.

"Yes, but the noise will draw attention to us, that's the last thing we need."

"Then what can we-"

I stopped mid-sentence, letting out an instinctive scream as something grabbed my leg from in front of me, pulling me into the darkness.

"Doctor!" I screamed as I was dragged across the cold, stone-like floor.

I threw my hands out in front of me as I was dragged legs-first down the corridor, franticly trying to grab onto anything that could stop me, but the floor was flawlessly flat and slick.

"Zoey!" I heard the Doctor call, but his voice was dishearteningly far off.

Even though I couldn't see what was pulling me down the corridor I knew it had to be one of the aliens. The corridor got colder as I was pulled along, my fears were temporarily quelled when my head hit something hard alongside the wall, knocking me unconscious.

I woke with a start only to find myself once again restrained to a liquid-like, rock wall, this time with only one arm cuffed to the wall. I soon realized it was because the lack of oxygen had significantly weakened me already. I scanned the room, seeing the three Baetas -more than likely the same from before- all converging around a center control panel that was lit with the same green light. My head was still foggy, but I was soon able to focus and hear their horrible hissing noises, except something was different.

"Five minutes_sss_ until the devi_cc_e is ready, our empire will reign _sss_upreme on_cc_e more!" the smallest of the three creatures hissed.

I was completely dumbfounded how I was hearing English when all they did before was hiss and spit out unrecognizable words.

"Do not be _sss_o arrogant, there i_sss_ _sss_till time for mi_sss_take if we are not cautiou_sss_," the largest one hissed.

"'Mi_sss_take'? We cannot afford to think _sss_uch thought_sss_, thi_sss_ planet will be our_sss_, what can the_sss_e fumbling creature_sss_ do to _sss_top u_ss_?" the last of the three hissed.

I watched as they pressed buttons on the control panel, a screen crackling to life on one of the walls. I stood up so I could get a better view of the screen and as I did so, the chain on my wrist clinked, drawing the aliens' attention to me. I stopped cold as their six harsh, green eyes fell on me.

"What i_sss_ thi_sss_ one here for?" the middle one said.

"_Sss_he wa_sss_ found wandering about the _sss_hip, _sss_earching, _sss_neaking, _sss_pying. Now _sss_he will watch her planet die and _sss_he will die with it," the smallest one said.

I looked at the screen, which showed central London with a massive, black cloud crawling across the sky. I could hear thunder rumbling outside the ship, some of the bigger claps rocking the ship. I coughed, my body getting weaker with the lack of oxygen in the room.

"_Sss_he wa_sss_ not alone, find the other one!" the smallest one hissed.

The smallest one and the other one left the room, exiting through a corridor and leaving the largest one with me.

"Your speaking in English now, but you weren't earlier, how?" I asked it.

"I would not burden my tongue with the filth language of your_sss_, I only _sss_peak Baeatic!" it hissed harshly.

"No, you're speaking English, I can understand you!" I cried out, scared at what was going on.

"It's the TARDIS, it translates for you," I heard from behind me.

I turned my head to see the Doctor being restrained by the other two Baetas. They pulled him along past me while the third spoke.

"Thi_sss_ planet will be our_sss_ _sss_oon, Doctor, we have heard many _sss_tories about you, but you will not be able to _sss_top us like the other_sss_," the largest said.

As the other two pulled the Doctor past me he slipped something into my unrestrained hand.

"Just point and think about what you want," he whispered very quietly.

I looked down in my hand, discreetly, as they pulled him away; in my hand was the Doctor's sonic screwdriver.

At first I had no idea why he had given me the contraption I hadn't a clue how to apply to this situation, then I remembered it had gotten me out of similar restraints before. I looked back up, trying not to give any hint that he had handed me something, for it could be the death of both of us. The two Baetas forced the Doctor to his knees, still restraining him from moving any more. Thunder clapped again, shaking the ship in the air and making me worry about the world below, all unaware that what seemed like a normal storm would bring their deaths.

"Why'd you pick this planet? There are millions of barren moons, uninhabited plants, for you to terraform, places where you don't have to take six billion lives before you can live on them!" the Doctor said, his voice clearly angry.

"Our planet i_sss_ dying, Doctor, Earth i_sss_ the clo_sss_e_sss_t match to our home planet," the largest of the three said.

"It doesn't have to be a close match! Not with the level of terraforming device you have, so what's you're real purpose, then?" the Doctor said angrily.

"You are right, our Elder one_sss_ fore_sss_aw the de_sss_truction of our home planet at the co_sss_t of the Time War, you _sss_hould know more than enough about that! They fore_sss_aw that cccenturiesss later while out planet'_sss_ ra_ccc_e_sss_ were rebuilding, the human_sss_ would come from Earth and en_sss_lave u_sss_! On our own planet! We _sss_et out to find a new planet to live on before the de_sss_truction wa_sss_ too great, and _sss_o we came upon Earth, our future enemy. We thought it would be a great honor to our people if we _sss_hould kill our enemie_sss_ and take the land they call home for our _sss_pecie_sss_ to live on a_sss_ recompense for their future en_sss_lavement of our race!" the largest said.

"Go back to your planet, you will find it is not dying, not anymore. The Time War ended, I know that for sure, your planet is right where you left it. Use your terraforming device to rebuild your own planet," the Doctor said, his voice becoming grim.

I noticed how his expression saddened as the largest Baeta had been speaking, at the mention of this "Time War." I pushed all further thought aside, for I had now sunk to the floor from the weakness of my body, and turned myself to shield the aliens view of my restrained arm. I moved my other arm slowly, pointing the sonic screwdriver at the shackle on my wrist, sliding my finger against the face of the object as I had seen the Doctor do. The end lit up blue and a low buzzing noise issued from it, seconds later I heard the unlocking of the shackle on my wrist and it fell from my arm.

"You do not under_sss_tand, the damage to our planet i_sss_ not able to be fixed by a _sss_imple terraforming devi_ccc_e! The Time War cau_sss_ed it almo_sss_t unrepairable damage, you alone _sss_hould know this, Time Lord! It wa_sss_ becau_sss_e your ra_ccc_e wa_sss_ _sss_o carele_sss_ with the power they po_sss_e_sss_ed that the war _sss_tarted at all!" the smallest one cut in.

"Enough of thi_sss_!" the largest one exclaimed. "You can not halt the proce_sss_ now! Planet Earth'_sss_ inhabitant_sss_ will die for what they plan to do with our ra_ccc_e! And if you in_sss_i_sss_t on ju_sss_tifying their deed_sss_, you _sss_hall die with them!"

The expression on the Doctor's face turned almost heartbreaking as the Baetas discussed the "Time War" further. I was confused at what they had called him, though...Time Lord. I again let my thoughts fall to the wayside as the smallest of the Baetas drew out a knife-like object. I quickly caught to Doctor's eye, winking at him and he nodded slightly back in reply.

"You can't do this!" I yelled weakly at the aliens, my strength all but gone.

"Oh, ye_sss, _we can, and we are, ju_sss_t watch!" two of them hissed together.

"No, really, you can't," I argued.

"And why do you in_sss_t _sss_o?" the smallest one asked.

"Because of him," I said nodding to the Doctor. "Catch!"

I tossed the sonic screwdriver back to its owner, who caught it flawlessly without the two aliens holding him any longer. He stood up and pointed the sonic screwdriver at the main panel, making it release a deafeningly shrill buzz that made the aliens howl in pain. The main panel burst into a flare of flames and sparks after a few seconds of the buzzing, the clouds on the screen retreating in unison with its destruction.

I ran to the Doctor's side with the little of my strength I could muster while the aliens were still immobilized from the sound, I could now see clearly the anger clouding his face as he looked at the aliens.

"Now, go find a moon or barren planet to make your new home on, I will allow you only that, but if you don't like that offer I can take down your entire ship and all of you with it. I'm usually not one for seconds chances, not with lot like you, so you better realize how lucky this option is. What do you say?" the Doctor said, his anger seeping through in his voice as harsh sarcasm.

"We would never take your mer_ccc_y, not in all of time it_sss_elf!" the smallest one howled.

"That's all I needed to hear," the Doctor said darkly, taking my hand.

He pointed the sonic screwdriver at the panel again, a button clicking on the main control. I saw a red countdown appear on the screen seconds after.

"Time to get you out of here," he said to me.

I was far too weak to argue with him the morality of leaving the aliens there, so I let him put my arm around his shoulders and walk me back down the corridor. We reached the TARDIS in minutes, faster than when we had left it earlier, was never more happy to see that Police Box.

"I took a shortcut," the Doctor said opening the TARDIS doors.

As soon as we were back inside I felt myself rapidly returning to normal now that I had enough oxygen again. However, I remained as silent as before, I didn't want to think about what the Doctor had just done, even if the aliens had deserved it. I watched the Doctor maneuver the controls on the TARDIS, the room shifting as the TARDIS started to move again. When it stopped, I stepped outside the TARDIS, the Doctor following me.

"I guess this is good-bye," I said turning to face him.

"It doesn't have to be," he replied.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means you could...come with me, I mean, if you want to. You did just save my life," the Doctor said.

"Yeah, and the whole planet," I said with a laugh.

"You helped," he teased.

"Well, if that's how you're going to treat me...No, I'm just joking, I would more than happily come with you, are you mad!? My life is bordering on boring, to travel with you, there's no words! I mean, if it's always like what just happened up there."

"Sometimes it is, but I don't like boring, so that's a promise: no boring, not ever," the Doctor said.

"Good, now where can that little blue box go?"

"Everywhere, anywhere you could possibly think of in all of time and space the TARDIS can go," the Doctor said proudly.

I smiled, "So, what changed? You were insulting humans not too long ago, what makes you want to bring one with you?"

"I said before, you're smarter than most humans, you're far more pleasant to be around, and like you said before, I am alone, I've started to _feel_ alone and I don't like it."

"Are you sure?" I said, my body about to spill over with absolute bliss.

"Positive," the Doctor said with a smile.

Without a second thought, my face beaming with joy, I ran back to the Police Box, pushed open the doors and ran inside, marveling the inside with a new light in my eyes. The Doctor came in shortly after, continuing on up to the main console with a smile also on his face.

"Welcome to the TARDIS, Zoey Belle, the brilliant girl," the Doctor said.

"Thank you, glad to be aboard," I said with a slight tease in my voice.

I felt like I was running away, running away from my own life as it was supposed to be, but it was the most joyous of running I had ever done and I didn't care. I stood there, not knowing what the future would hold for me, not even when, or if for that matter, I would ever return home to my normal life. Again I told myself I didn't care I just wanted to enjoy my time with the Doctor, that was it, enjoy my time being a "brilliant girl" and loving every second of it, no matter where this little blue box might take us.

**Oh, isn't this every whovian's dream? Sorry about the wait, guys, hope it was worth it! Hope you enjoyed and hopefully the next chapter will come a little sooner, I don't know though because unfortunately school is about to start up in a couple weeks, and hopefully I get a week or so without massive amounts of homework every night, but I doubt it...I will try my very hardest to finish chapter 5 before this happens! As always, thanks for reading!**


	5. Chapter 5: A Different Time

**As promised, the day before I go back to school and I just decided this was a good way to end the summer and I decided to end this chapter as well so it may be just a bit short...but without further ado...**

**Chapter 5: A Different Time**

"Where do you want to go first?" the Doctor asked.

"Well, I've never been to North America," I said jokingly.

"I did mention it's a time machine, right? It can go anywhere in the universe, so more specifically, past or future?"

I suddenly felt as if I had been asked the most troubling question of all my life.

"Umm...the past," I said with a confident nod. "No, wait that's boring, isn't it? Why harp over days long gone? It's like history class..."

"The past can be very interesting, more things happened than most people know," the Doctor commented.

"Fine, the past it is, then! I do love history! Let's live it!" I said excitedly. "Wait a second, what am I supposed to do about my friends? They'll think something's happened to me!"

"Phone them, tell them your traveling, it's not really telling them a lie," the Doctor said with a smile.

"Fine," I said taking out my mobile from my pocket.

After a few anxious calls out to my friends to tell them I was going on a trip and didn't know when I would be back, I excitedly hung up my mobile and turned it off with its usual jazzy chime.

"Do you like jazz?" the Doctor asked curiously.

"It's only my favorite genre of music!" I replied far too excitedly. "Sorry, it's just...all this, I don't know what to think."

"Happens to everyone, I understand, don't think just because I do this all the time it's not exciting for me."

I found myself just standing there smiling, looking around at the inside of the TARDIS as if I hadn't seen it before. Then the thought crossed my mind that while the TARDIS could most definitely travel through space, it might be a far stretch to say it could travel through _time_.

"Are you starting to wonder if I'm telling the truth? That's also pretty normal," the Doctor said leaning against the console.

"I know you're not lying, it just crossed my mind for a split second, never to return," I said confidently.

"Fantastic, because I know the perfect place to take you," he said with an almost-mischievous smile.

I could hardly keep up with all the controls, levers, and buttons the Doctor was pushing, maneuvering and pulling as he darted around the console.

"Are you ready?" the Doctor said stopping for a second.

"Who would be?"

With a smile the Doctor pulled a lever toward him, the TARDIS jerking harshly, making me fall to the floor. Once the TARDIS stopped shaking so violently I was able to push myself up off the floor and I saw the Doctor had his hand on a sort-of stabilizer on the console.

"Blimey, I'm going to have to get used to that," I said.

"Are you alright?"

I nodded in reply, straightening my gray top, "Thanks. Does it do that every time it takes off?"

"No, but it happens a lot, you might want to get used to it."

My mind was a jumbled mess of excitement, I had no idea what made me so eager to run away with a man from another planet that I barely knew -yet felt like I knew all my life- through time and space. Not for one second did I regret this decision, nor did I ever think I would. I smiled to myself as this thought crossed my mind and I told myself I would never again doubt the Doctor, after all it was _his_ time machine he knew what he was doing and I didn't have a clue. I wondered if it was going to be anything like I used to see on the TV shows when the people go back in time and accidentally change the future; I surely didn't want to be the dinosaur hunter that stepped on the butterfly. The TARDIS made the usual whirring noise before it stopped moving completely, my excitement rose when I realized I was about to step into a new place. A new part of my life was beginning once I stepped outside those doors with the Doctor and it was a part of my life I wouldn't have traded for the universe.

"Alright, here we are, go on, then," the Doctor said motioning to the TARDIS doors.

I turned to face the doors, my excitement on the verge of boiling over as I approached the white-backed doors.

"Wait a second, where are we?" I asked, turning around to face the Doctor.

The Doctor remained by the console only looking at me suggestively. I took his hint of secrecy, continuing my short walk to the doors which I pushed open to reveal the world outside. I stepped out expecting to be on some strange foreign planet, but when I looked around I realized I'd seen this place before. The lights of a large city only a hundred feet away, the cypress trees draped with moss looming over the TARDIS, it all looked so familiar to me, yet I knew I had never been here before. I took a few large steps away from the safety of the TARDIS to get a full view of where we were, though the humidity was the most striking aspect of this place.

"So?" the voice from behind made me wheel around only to find it was just the Doctor.

"So what?" I said crossing my arms in mock-anger at him.

"You must know where we are, you'd have to," he said leaning against the Police Box.

"Okay, the swamp trees, the big city, the bloody humidity...Oh my God! Is this New Orleans?!" I exclaimed, utterly thrilled.

"New Orleans, 1924 to be exact," the Doctor said. "Welcome to the Roaring Twenties."

"No! You are kidding me!" I said.

"I'm not."

"But that's- No _way! _That's the middle of the Jazz Age!"

The Doctor smiled at my overjoyed revelation as if he had pictured my reaction was going to be exactly like this. I looked around again, my eyes seeming to see everything differently now that I knew every plant, every insect I saw was eighty years old. The sheer thought of all of this made my head spin, it was completely impossible, yet here we were. The feeling was overwhelming, that I was walking in another time, living in a day that had already come and gone many years ago. I marveled at the rugged beauty of this place that I had once seen on a screen but was now all around me.

"You got this whole idea just from a little tune on my mobile?" I asked in fascination.

"Yeah, pretty much. Why, don't you like it?"

"Oh, I love it already, it's perfect, thank you!" I said excitedly.

The Doctor smiled, "You don't have to thank me."

He glanced down at a wristwatch he had on, "Now it gets even better because guess what time we've happened upon."

I was about to reply in the negative when I heard loud, festive music coming from the city.

"Is that-?" I looked to see that the Doctor was smiling even more widely at me.

"Mardi Gras!?" I said, my expression breaking into a beaming smile.

I looked on to the city of New Orleans, live with festivity, live and yet still in a dead day. I wondered how many people dancing in those streets, parading through the French Quarter, were still alive where I was from..._when_ I was from. I quickly shifted my mind away from that thought, these people where alive right now, not anywhere else, but _now_. The Doctor interrupted my warring thoughts and took my arm.

"Do you want to go into town?" he asked.

I smiled in reply as, together, we started to walk towards the celebrating town.

It seemed like it was a little past midday, though there was a thin layer of clouds obscuring the sunlight. As we continued to walk I tried to recall all I knew about the 1920s besides the obvious facts, nothing strange popped into mind when I thought of the "Roaring Twenties." I then wondered why we were here because the Doctor didn't seem like the sort to take vacations when, apparently, the Earth and the universe always needed saving. And what had gotten into me? Only a few days ago I would never have just gone along with any of this, I would question and deny that any of this was even real. After all, how could we even be in 1924, besides the obvious time machine? I hated this mind-set I was getting into, quickly pushing it away, I didn't want to question _how _I just wanted to observe and enjoy. We quickly came upon the city of New Orleans, which gave me more things to marvel at; the beautiful buildings with laced balconies, the narrow street, and -what really told me we had traveled in time- the old-modeled cars honking down the street. All I could do was turn and smile up at the Doctor, any words would have been lost in translation for there were no words. We walked only a few blocks more and turned, finding ourselves heading down the very famous Bourbon Street that was full of people. The Doctor took no hesitation to walk up to the first person he saw with a newspaper and ask to see today's paper. He turned back around from the willing citizen to show me a paper called _The Times-Picayune_ which I had often read articles out of when I did a paper on New Orleans.

"You see?" he said showing me the date on the paper.

"'Tuesday, March 4, 1924,'" I read off, "Oh my God, we really did travel in time, I mean I never doubted it, but seeing it for absolute certain..."

"And just in time to-" the Doctor started.

"I'm sorry," the older man the Doctor had borrowed and returned the paper to cut in. "Don't mean to be rude, but, Miss, what shameful clothes you're wearing."

In alarm I looked down at my fitted gray top and long pants that was my work outfit, I realized how out-of-time I looked. I looked at the Doctor in helplessness, not having a clue what I should do.

"Excuse us, I need to have a word with my friend here, she seems to be forgetting lately..." the Doctor said inching off with me in tow.

I followed him for a few blocks noticing we were heading out of the city.

"What are we doing?" I asked walking faster to keep up with him.

"I completely forgot about your clothes, it's important you change them, we need to blend in and wearing pants in the 1920s..." the Doctor said.

"Women didn't wear pants in the '20s," I finished.

"Exactly, and that's the sort of attention we don't need."

We made it back to the TARDIS faster than we had left it for the city, it still sat in between the two tallest cypress trees.

"Doctor," I said stopping in my tracks. "I don't have any other clothes to wear."

Now it hit me, I really had just run off with this man I hardly knew; I didn't have anything with me except the clothes I wore and the wallet in my pants pocket, which would do nothing but complicate things further since my driver's license said I wasn't even born yet.

"And I was really hoping we would have time to get something to eat, they really do have fantastic food here," the Doctor said unlocking the TARDIS.

"But I don't have clothes!" I said.

"I can help you with that, come on back inside," he told me, holding out his hand.

I stepped back into the TARDIS console room where the Doctor had gone over to the central console and was now looking at a monitor screen.

"Alright, go down that corridor, take a left, go all the way until you see _The Persistence of Memory,_ take the hall on your immediate left, then take a right at the end and the door is on your left," the Doctor said in a hurried tone. "I think you'll like it."

He gave me one of his secretive grins that made me want to shake the answer out of him, but this time I just asked.

"What is it I'm looking for?"

"The wardrobe," he said with a grin, crossing his arms.

I followed the Doctor's instructions carefully trying to remember every direction he told me to go. I didn't know how big the inside of the TARDIS actually was and I didn't want to find out by getting lost. He had gone on to tell me that it was just one of the wardrobe's entrances, leaving me to my own speculations about its size. I stopped in front of the painting the Doctor told me about, it was mounted on a wall that forked horizontally as far as I could see in either direction. I looked at the painting, it had always confused me when I was younger and still in the present it's meaning was absent to me. Remembering that the Doctor told me not to linger too long, that he had a "surprise" for me later, made me hurry past the painting down the left hallway. When I had followed all of the Doctor's instructions I pushed open the simple door on my left, stepping inside what I expected to be a simple, walk-in wardrobe: once again I found myself to be mistaken. The dome-shaped room was enormous, a far greater size than the room which contained the console, and on the wall spiraled a few levels of clothes packet side-by-side on hangars. As I stepped further inside of the room -which looked very similar in design to the console room- I saw a large, gold-bronze spiral staircase at its center leading up another whole floor to a platform above. It was just like going to the shops back at home, so many clothes and not enough time to go through them all. I was quickly going through them starting from the bottom up, knowing exactly what I was looking for. Minutes went by before I found myself bewildered at exactly where the Doctor had gotten all these clothes from. I had many images I had seen from the 1920s flashing through my head at that moment, trying to find something I could wear to seem like I belonged with the regular crowd of New Orleans. I dashed up the spiral staircase to find even more levels of clothes hanging against the walls with many more articles of clothing flung about, some on the coral-looking structures -like those that supported the console room- and some on coat racks. After about twenty minutes of searching I found something that fit perfectly with the time period and miraculously fit _me_ perfectly. After slipping on some small black flats with the dress I dashed back out the way I came, urgent to get back to the Doctor.

I appeared in front of him, right where I had left him in the console room, he hadn't even moved the slightest it seemed. I did one quick twirl in the dress to fan out the fringe and show off the sequined embroidery as it shone in the light of the TARDIS. The dress I had chosen was a flapper dress like the ones they wore in the '20s, it was black underneath an embroidered silver hourglass-shaped front that came up in a Y-shaped neckline. The skirt had a silver, M-shaped line zig-zagging across the front with two layers of fringe cascading down from the line to just above my knees and the neckline was studded with shining silver threading and beading. The dress was light and the straps over my shoulders were only about three inches thick, so hopefully I would be spared from the humidity. The dress wasn't too flashy as to draw attention, nor was it too dull, something that would also draw attention due to the carefully chosen clothes of this time.

"What do you think?" I asked the Doctor.

He stood next to the console for a moment just staring at the dress and then at me.

"You look absolutely fantastic, that dress looks very good on you and it's perfect for where we are going," the Doctor said genuinely, smiling.

"Thank you, Doctor," I said with my own smile reflecting his. "And where exactly are we going?"

"We are in New Orleans in the very heart of the Jazz Age with Mardi Gras going on, Zoey Belle, I'm taking you to the jazz club."

**I'm getting somewhere important with the New Orleans thing just hold on XD and since ive nvr actually been to new orleans or mardi gras Im going to do my very best to capture it as it really is. If my description of the dress was confusing googling "black and silver flapper dress" should give you the inspired picture in the 1st or 2nd picture...also, I do love the TARDIS wardrobe so I had to go there as well. Hope you enjoyed and I hope the first week will be smooth enough to allow me time to work on chapter 6 ...Thanks for reading :)**


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